The Plot

London 1973 – A man in police custody burns to death with no known cause of ignition. Anne Travers and Bill Bishop find themselves catapulted into the middle of a police investigation into the rise to power of the newest criminal godfather – the Big Man, aka, the Dominator, Dominic Vaar!

Lost in time and brought together by destiny, can Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, Dame Anne Travers and Brigadier Bill Bishop stop Britain being pitched into a new age of darkness?

Written by Robert Mammone

Writer Robert Mammone returns to writing duties and has this to say about his upcoming book: “When Lethbridge-Stewart range editor Andy Frankham-Allen reached out to me and asked if I was interested in being a part of the latest run of Lethbridge-Stewart books, I was, of course, surprised, ecstatic and to be honest, a little daunted. Writing my Travers & Wells novella had been a relatively smooth affair, but a 40,000 word novella is a different beast to a full novel.

Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen

The Range Editor of the Lethbridge-Stewart line spoke about the return of the Dominators: “The Dominators, in particular Vaar, was originally planned to return in 2017 but sadly that novel fell through, and then it was planned for 2018 with a different author, but the cessation of the ongoing narrative put it on hold once again.”

Frankham-Allen continues “The Dominators are, of course, the main antagonists behind the Travers & Wells range, as seen in the short story, ‘Time and Again’. But the idea of bringing Vaar back as a gangster in 1970s London has been on the backburner for a couple of years, and when it was decided that The Laughing Gnome would be set in the various decades of Lethbridge-Stewart’s association with Doctor Who, it seemed the time was right to finally do a Gangster Dominator story.”

Adrian Salmon Art

It would be impossible to not mention the gorgeous cover art by Adrian Salmon. Salmon has an extensive amount work through different Doctor Who lines, including the upcoming ‘Macra Terror’. He has, of course, done many of the fantastic covers for the Lethbridge-Stewart line. With his distinctive style, Salmon continues to be a strong asset to these stories.

Rise of the Dominator from Candy Jar Books

Salmon had this to say about his cover : “Illustrating Dominator Var as a cross between Al Capone and Reggie Kray was probably the best thing I’ve ever been asked to do by Candy Jar Books; I mean how can you go wrong? Once I’d settled on the central image, which included a menacing Golem from the story, I worked out the car chase. This being the ‘action scene’ of the cover, it needed to be dramatic and exciting, breaking out of the design template. Finally, I created a suitably seedy London street at night (think Soho), resplendent with neon lights and noir shadows. Eagle-eyed viewers might even spot that a certain film, which was doing the rounds at the time the book is set, is showing at the private cinema club.”